Dietrich

  Giants were a threat because they made a mess merely by existing, their every step causing the ground to quake and destroying buildings even when they weren’t directly stepped on.

  This new rank of boss was no giant. It was a true monster larger than many a mountain, a titan that made giants look like ants in comparison, a wandering natural disaster which had leveled buildings, crushed streets, and pulverized many of the brave men and women attempting to stop it simply by walking around. It had never attacked any of them directly, hell, he wasn’t sure if it even knew they existed.

  He, Mia, Genghis Khan, the Golem of Prague, the entire Fianna without the man himself, Ogier, Arthur, and the African Emperor Sundiata Keita were here, facing the Continent Boss on land along with the Indonesian army and all of Fionn’s magic students.

  On the water, they had the entirety of the British Royal Navy, and the American’s Pacific Fleet throwing everything they had at this monster.

  And so far … all they’d achieved was cause debris to rain down, debris those on the ground then had to dodge.

  As far as he knew, obsidian wasn’t actually what volcanoes were made up of, but this thing was built almost entirely from a stone that had a bad habit of shattering into razor-sharp shards that flew absolutely everywhere, causing nearly as many injuries as the quakes did.

  As per usual, this beast had cores, six, to be specific. On on each foot, one in the head, and one in the ash-spewing hellmouth he could not see yet knew had to be located on its back. Though Dietrich could also tell that this time, separating the cores from the main body was as good as destroying them, they could amputate the limbs anywhere and still “win.”

  And he proceeded the exact way he always did, the line of energy belonging to [Sword Art: Giantsplitter] flashing from Mimung’s tip to carve a long line across the closest limb, obsidian chunks on either side of it beginning to fall towards the ground as it flashed past … until the line of power reached the shoulder and finally cut contact before shutting off before it could flash into the sky.

  He’d known powerful monsters could directly counter his supposedly “absolute” bisection Skill. But ordinarily, that required the sacrifice of a core. This beast … it had just blocked it.

  “We’re going to make it fall in the ocean,” Genghis Khan declared. “We can cut away cliff-face there, I believe Miss Vogt has a Skill that guarantees a fall when removing a leg, so if she strikes the amputating blow. Emperor Sundiata, you can weaken the ground, everyone else, help me rip through the ankle!”

  And with that, he hauled his horse around and galloped towards the leg that was currently positioned right next to the ocean, blobs of lava already striking the water and unleashing huge gouts of steam. Bow in one hand, glowing arrow already nocked, ready to unleash hell.

  It was a good plan, but also … the Mongolian emperor had just steamrolled a whole bunch of people who did not take well to being ordered around. Arthur, in particular, unleashed his [Grand Slash] at the closer leg, leaving a huge crater, then began to dig.

  It was at this point that the monster attacked for the first time, jerking its head in the direction of the fleet, sending a glob of lava flying from its mouth. Then … then, it turned down to glare at the gnats slashing at its legs and started to stomp.

  Dietrich, meanwhile, simply whistled, calling upon his horse and leaped onto the back of the supernatural steed as it materialized from the empty air, riding straight after Genghis Khan, only briefly slowing down to lean over, grab Mia’s forearm, and haul her onto the saddle behind him.

  The ground trembled with the force of the monster’s

  He triggered the first charge of [Adventurer’s Royal Keepsake] the instant they reached their target. His latest Capstone was interesting, giving him a new way to use it every time he achieved a “heroic deed,” any he could use any seven of them every single day, or the same one seven different times.

  At its most basic, his hacking the giant Hilde in half with a single strike had given him the option of using the Skill as a replacement for his Giantsplitter [Sword Art], seven times in a row, with no regard for cooldown or the like.

  But that was the basic use.

  There were so many more.

  He’d started the twins on their path to being able to stand with ancients in the line of battle, so he could boost his allies.

  He’d defeated Siegfried, an invulnerable man, so he could break through even the most ludicrously powerful defenses.

  He’d brought the battle of Etzel’s hall to a screeching halt when he’d stepped in, so he could freeze his opponent regardless of its power, even for a short burst.

  Dragons had fallen, enemies turned into friends, armies routed, kingdoms conquered in a day. And he’d killed giants. So. Many. Giants.

  So many options. And he used them all.

  Everyone immediately knew what he wanted them to do, without Charlemagne needing to play intermediary, the target was clear, everyone who was involved and needed it had been strengthened, the monster briefly froze in place, and then, the final four charges of the Skill were burned to unleash every the most powerful giant-splitting attack he’d ever launched, crashing into monster’s leg, followed by every other active Skill that could reach the target.

  Until finally, Mia struck the coup de grace.

  ***

  Mia

  [Sword Art: A Blade Across Time and Space] to carry the attack, [Sword Art: Foebreaker] to add an extra component of physical force while piling on every passive Skill she had.

  Including [The Harder They Fall].

  Removing a limb guaranteed a hard fall, and since Dietrich arranged it so that she’d land the last hit that would sever the leg …

  Yes, the monster did fall.

  It was louder than any explosion, larger than any avalanche, more devastating than any storm.

  Simply a titanic walking mass of lava and obsidian, pushed over by the force of her Skill, toppling into the sea … what happened next should have been eminently predictable, yet somehow, it caught them all off-guard.

  When you threw a stone into the sea, you got ripples. If you threw a mountain, you got a fucking tsunami.

  The site of the impact was too close to the coast for them to be much water between the monster and the coast, so they were fairly safe … but they had allies out there on the ocean, and the wave that rippled out was far larger than any tidal wave she’d ever even heard about.

  At least a hundred meters high, moving faster than even Dietrich’s horse could gallop … it slammed into the battleships like the boot of an angry god, making them vanish from view while she struggled to stay on her feet atop ground that shook as though they were going through an actual earthquake.

  The Wisconsin and Missouri came back into view after a second, the former bursting through the titanic wall of water, having punched clean through as though it were nothing there.

  The latter, on the other hand … only the Missouri’s bottom hull was visible, the entire battleship having been flipped upside down like a toddler’s bath toy.

  But the monster, it was already rising once again, cooled lava exploding off it with every movement until it stood as tall as it had ever had, glaring down at them with still-glowing eyes.

  Yet they’d achieved more than just a minor victory. Because its right arm was gone. Not just the hand they’d hacked off, but the entire arm. Oh … yeah, it looked pissed!

  ***

  Miller

  From one moment to the next, ashen skies were replaced by the deep ocean abyss as a goddamn battleship was flipped onto its head like a bloody children’s toy. Being on the deck of the Missouri with the guns thundering less than thirty meters from his head had hardly been a prime placement, but obviously, being anywhere on deck when the ship capsized like a motherfucking kayak.

  The impact had been sudden, and knocked all the breath out of him, leaving streams of bubbles to flash past him towards a sky covered by the deck of the battleship.

  He could feel his chest growing tight and vision go dim while his hands threatened to release their death grip on the railing … until suddenly, everything snapped into sharp relief.

  [I Live Until I Die] might have the dumbest, most unimaginative, and nonsensical name of all his Skills, but it was powerful nevertheless. It did nothing to stop him from dying, but if death was imminent, he was granted the power to fight at full power until he was all the way dead. And now, it was burning in his very core, pushing away the pain, the emptiness, the craving for air, all replaced with a furious desire to bash that beast’s face in!

  [Lead by Example] was the next Skill to activate, triggering almost on its own, his strength flowing into “his” men, the crew of this ship practically doubling in strength despite the fact that not even a single iota of his own power was lost.

  Could he launch himself past the deck and reach the surface? Could he channel [Thunderous Glare] into the water to boil it and cause an explosion that flipped the ship without killing himself or electrocuting the crew?

  Or …

  Suddenly, an invisible force grasped the Missouri and, almost gently, turned it right side up again. Who … oh, who cared. He’d find out who to buy a drink after the fact.

  Right now, [Bloody Retribution] was boiling under his skin and he forced all the energy into his eyes, and he fuelled [Surge of Power] after it, his entire face heating up as electricity began to arc across the front of his head. Then, [Reciprocal Boost] activated on top of everything else, the power he’d been sent out returning to him now that the crew no longer needed to be able to escape a “sinking” ship, sending his power shooting into the stratosphere.

  For a few seconds, he held it there, building and building, until finally, he unleashed [Thunderous Glare].

  Ordinarily, Miller did not see the lightning he shot from his eyes, otherwise, he’d have blinded himself. But this time, the world before him was replaced with a single, utterly overwhelming blast of white light while thunder washed out all other sounds at such volume that even while he was still blinded, he lifted one hand to touch the side of his head and make sure he wasn’t bleeding from his ears.

  After several seconds, he could hear were the aftershocks of the blast, however, he’d somehow managed to graduate from “complete blindness” to “blinking spots out of eyes.”

  Yet even between the still-flickering spots and constant blinks, he was able to catch sight of what kind of hell he’d just unleashed upon his foe.

  The water in front of the Missouri had been blasted back, the remnants of the shockwave still clearly outlined even now. And the monster, it had taken a direct hit to the face, possibly even the eye, though there was no way to tell, not now. Because said eye was gone now, along with the right side of its head, all the way down to the side of its mouth, which had been cracked open and was now perpetually leaking mana.

  It had all been pulverized, reduced to dust, and sent rocketing over the horizon. Dozens or hundreds of tons of material, annihilated.

  And yet, it was a surface-level, minor, bit of damage. Less than a single percent of its mass. Also, in what universe was that kind of injury not immediately fatal?

  Water splattered Miller’s back as the Missouri’s guns fired for the first time since their involuntary bath, clearing their barrels of liquid with their initial salvo.

  No, the monster wasn’t dead yet. But they’d already hit it hard and now, it was time to drive the boot in!

  ***

  Drake

  He’d never expected [Uncapsize] to come in handy. Ever.

  They were fighting in metal-forged behemoths of fire and steel, not dinky little one-man sailing boats. No modern warship should capsize, let alone outright flip the way the Missouri had done. Even the absurdly top-heavy, gun-covered HMS Agincourt in the first World War had managed to stay upright.

  But as he’d had to remind himself so many times before, logic had loooong since gone out the window.

  As for the Wisconsin, it had actually been fairly easy to get through the wave, [Ramming Speed] had allowed her to go straight through while even protecting the mages on deck.

  And his latest Capstone was already coming in handy. Getting put in a point on the chain of command where he could help the American battleship would have taken hours otherwise, if not days.

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  Though it had also helped in general. With just the battleships in range of the monster, he’d easily been able to extend the passive “luck’s protection” to every vessel threatened by its long-range attacks, and regardless of how powerful it was, the hurled globs of lava were slow and moved in predictable arcs. Throw a little luck on top of the helmsmen’s skill and they were effectively untouchable, as long as they kept the range open.

  Aaaaaand there wasn’t another incident like the last one. There was no dodging a wave like that.

  As for the the end result of his rescue … well, something had clearly triggered several conditional Skills held by the reincarnator and the results spoke for themselves.

  Though it might have worked a little too well, as the monster had turned around and was now making its way over to where the logistics base was located. Oh, shite.

  ***

  Charlemagne

  The monster was coming his way. Perfect.

  Thus far, everyone had known him as the “logistics guy.”

  But it wasn’t wholly inaccurate. When he wasn’t diving into religious texts or ancient knowledge, he was making sure that all the materials needed to fight a war against the new rules of reality, collectively known as “The System,” were always available.

  Tristan had once summed up his military strategy as “turning his army into the most powerful hammer in existence and then treating the enemy as a nail.” A vast oversimplification, but once again, not wholly inaccurate. Armies marched on their stomach, and when army clashed against army, equipment made a huge difference.

  Eternally growing the Untersberg’s supply of weapons, munition, food, and spare parts was just as important as Tristan’s efforts at making allies, and everyone else’s killing monsters.

  Yet he could do some good on the field of battle, it was just that many of his battlefield skills were also “logistics-flavored,” geared towards protecting the supplies while army fought, and they could not function well when his logistics base was an active part of the conflict the way the Untersberg was. Every. Single. Time.

  Oh, this would be good.

  Using a combination of [Automated Logistics] and [Optimized Transportation] to continuously resupply the military with whatever they used up, be it missiles, entire artillery pieces, or even just something as simple as water, that helped.

  But today, he would cripple the beast.

  Tristan shot him an alarmed look, tearing his eyes off the screen showing the storm he was summoning so he could control it.

  Karl der Gro?e just gave him a reassuring expression in reply, then announced “No need to worry, I will handle this.”

  Even as he spoke, the monster was already rearing back, raising its one remaining arm before bringing it back down with enough force to flatten a city.

  The lava-wreathed fist came down like a meteor, an apocalyptic force of destruction, only to slam into [Secured Logistics’] barrier as it flared into existence at the last possible second … and stopped dead, entirely blocked, all the force reflected up into its arm, sending cracks radiating up it.

  But Karl did not stop there.

  The instant the fist made contact, he slammed [Righteous Fury] into the limb, all the energy stored in the Skill chasing the reflected impact up into the Continent Boss’ body.

  An entire arm had been reduced to powder in an instant, all of which was raining down as a shower of razor shards. And the entire monster’s torso was following suit, millions of tons of rock about to crush the base in its entirety.

  Karl triggered [Mobile Fortress], and just teleported fifty kilometers east. Sadly, the Skll had a mass limit the Untersberg had overshot by a couple of orders of magnitude, but it was rather useful in situations like that.

  People around his throne gave him awed looks, which he studiously ignored in favor of continuing the rearrangement of forces, passing along information, sending munitions, and preparing a rather nasty trap to be built if the monster looked like it wanted to follow them further.

  It didn’t, sadly, but that was fine. Removing the second limb was more than enough for him. Throw in the first arm, and Miller destroying the core in the head, and they were already halfway to victory.

  ***

  Drake

  If there had ever been any doubt that this monster was something entirely unnatural, then the sight of an “armless” ape-beast “walking” by moving its back legs while pushing its face through the dirt like some demented wheelbarrow.

  It should have been funny … but it wasn’t. It really, really, wasn’t.

  “I can recharge your reloading Skill, if you need it,” the German emperor suggested via his communications Skill.

  Drake grinned. “Capital idea. I think we should be able to hit the monster with three entire salvos of missiles and everything else the planes can carry if we coordinate this correctly.”

  Obviously, the battleships would be able to pull off a “triple-tap” as well, but that would pale in comparison to what all the countless aircraft flying around out there could do.

  It did not take long to coordinate everything, and ten minutes later, the Continent Boss’ back right leg was swallowed up in magical attacks to weaken it, followed by a titanic explosion that sent chunks the size of the Wisconsin flying. Then the next hit. And after that, a third wave of missiles swept across an obsidian limb that looked to be mere seconds from shattering on its own.

  Entirely unsurprisingly, the leg snapped like a toothpick, causing the torso to tip sideways and hit the ground with an earthshaking “thump.”

  Even this beast should be unable to move now … right?

  Drake sagged in his command chair.

  It. Had. Worked.

  Wait, what was it doing now?

  The monster was suddenly starting to glow cherry-red, not just the lines of orange light that crisscrossed its torso, but the very obsidian itself, as though energy were building up within it, until … oh. That tracked.

  Of course, the volcano beast would erupt when near death.

  “Full retreat,” Drake snapped, projecting the orders both to the bridge and through the joint command channel. “Flank speed, directly away from the monster, it’s going to blow. Seal all hatches, and brace for impact!”

  But it was likely already too late. If anyone lived through this, it would be through luck alone.

  ***

  Temujin

  [Inevitable Conclusion] triggered at the last possible second, scattering the joint army to the winds. Some would escape, there would inevitably be people around with Skills specialized in that, and therefore everyone would escape.

  The world blinked, his surroundings shifted, and suddenly, he was in an entirely different area, alone … and hopelessly lost. Just how far would he have had to run to escape the blast?

  But, buuuut, he now lived in the information age. Cell phones were a miracle … except when he pulled out his phone, it turned out to have shattered into pieces at some point during the battle.

  Temujin sighed.

  Back to the old-fashioned way of navigating, go find a local and ask them for directions, if they refused, make them an offer they could not say no to.

  ***

  Tristan

  One second, we’d been in the logistics center. The next, I, and everyone else, was suddenly standing in the Untersberg’s throne room. What had just happened? The monster had been about to explode, I’d opened the portal to a place I knew was safe, and then, then … oh, right, that Skill of Genghis Khan’s. I just hoped that meant that everyone else had made it out safe too.

  My hand shot towards my phone, but even as I pulled it out, it already dinged with a message from Mia.

  “Safe, in boonies, idk where exactly.”

  Which hopefully meant everyone else had also managed to get away.

  I sighed in relief, only to be jerked back to attention by the System’s voice.

  [Courtmage of Neutrality Lv. 49 -> Courtmage of Neutrality Lv. 50]

  [Capstone Skill gained: In The Eye of the Storm]

  I started to cackle, earning myself a stern look from Charlemagne. And while I tried to curtail the inappropriate expression of joy, I’d just gotten my “got nothing to fear from nukes no more” Skill … probably. I should probably check what it actually said.

  Holy … talk about overpowered. An Ascendant Capstone that could keep growing stronger.

  As long as I remained useful, at least. When that stopped and I got kicked to the curb, or I just plain retired and/or quit … well, I guess I just had to hope I hadn’t made too many enemies by that point.

  It was an absurd power to be sure, but one that was borrowed, and therefore had strings attached. The same strings that bound, or maybe just guided, me the entire time, but the strings were there nevertheless.

  … so bloody what? I straight-up didn’t care, to be entirely honest. Outside of a small twinge of obligatory disappointment that the power was “borrowed,” it was in no way different from the position I’d put myself in quite voluntarily and deliberately.

  As for the specific Ascendant Capstones I was borrowing, Dietrich’s was obvious. A big consequence had to have a big cause when his Skill was involved, so as long as one was sufficiently important, no “impersonal” attack like a missile from the other side of the globe would threaten my life.

  Meanwhile, I didn’t know the exact terms of Charlemagne’s main defense, but between my pre-existing awareness and what my own Ascendant Capstone let slip, I could get a good grasp on what it did and didn’t do. Mainly, the fact that he could keep living for a damn long time, and was nearly unkillable, while his empire existed.

  And while I might share the Skill, I didn’t share the empire, because it belonged to him and even if there had been space for more than one emperor, I still wasn’t someone of that rank, so it had less of an effect on me.

  Meanwhile, I’d had no idea what Fionn’s Ascendant Capstone was, until now, but it was simple, suitable for him, and helped me to.

  All very, very, nice.

  I waved the window away with the intention of going to look for Mia to tell her about my new superpower, but it was instantly replaced by another one, which was new in more ways than one.

  So, first up, the Level scale went all the way up to 100, which was good to know. Plenty of growth left, plenty of ways for humans to be able to scale all the way up to the state or even nation-wrecking level of power … which would be a ton of fun when there were no more monsters to act as the common enemy. I was already leery of both Charlemagne, Sundiata, and Genghis Khan existing on the planet at the same time, the possibilities of what could happen when the current issue was solved kept me up at night.

  Or maybe it was all the other shit too … but if it ever reached the point where I needed to talk to someone about it, I’d find someone. Until then, I’d do my actual job.

  So, what exactly would I do now? Which Class would I pick?

  I mean, [Warmage] just sounded dope. But also slightly useless, because thanks to Fionn, I had access to all the spells I could ever possibly want. Also, joining the ranks of pure mages would not increase our magic offensive potential by much while taking an axe to our diplomatic arm.

  So, no [Warmage] for me.

  [Erudite Ambassador], meanwhile, sounded good. No magical component, but then again, my magic hadn’t really been the tipping point in any fight so far. It had helped, but not to the point where it had should be the core of my next Class.

  And [Ambassadorial Archmage] was basically a combination of my past classes, making me both an ambassador and an archmage. Magic and deals. Nice, but also … kinda boring. Though boring and straightforward weren’t strictly bad either, it was all a matter of context.

  [Polymath of Conflict], meanwhile, was one I was very surprised to see, I’d have expected it to be held by someone more worthy, such as literally any ancient, but it made sense the more I thought about it. After all, I’d been learning from those people, be it through their teaching Skills, my own [Knowledge Trade], and general conversations. After all, the Class didn’t say I had that knowledge, it simply said I would gain it.

  At the same time, I knew exactly how I’d gotten [Mender of War’s Scars]. I’d been fixing the messes combat left behind since … forever, really. Though at the same time, [Restoration of the Old] worked just fine for the material, we had healers for the flesh, and for mental health … honestly, rearranging minds using Skills made me feel highly uncomfortable. Even if I’d wanted to become a healer, this Class likely wasn’t for me.

  On the other hand, [Arcane Wanderer] tickled something deep within me. The idea of going wherever I wanted, soaking up any information I wanted to learn like a sponge while also being able to do my job and it even had a magical component …

  Gain knowledge, make deals, live life, what more could I want?

  Not just for now, but for the future, once this was done, the inevitable infighting/civil wars were over, when I had time to be myself again, this was still what I wanted to do. Who I wanted to be.

  Magic, knowledge, alliances. Everything I had been doing and wanted to keep doing, all in one Class. Yes, individual aspects might, no, would be weaker than a Class that focussed on them, but at the same time, a focused Class wouldn’t give me anything else …

  So, what should I choose?

  My knee-jerk reaction was away from [Mender of War’s Scars] and towards [Arcane Wanderer]. And while I knew the “accuracy” of first impressions, I also knew that a little thought going into making a major decision was also a good thing.

  [Warmage], nope.

  [Polymath of Conflict], already had people with that skillset and they were better than I’d get within the next decade, let alone just the time left on the initialization.

  [Erudite Ambassador] and [Ambassadorial Archmage] … serviceable but nothing that had me jumping with joy.

  Which just left me with the Class that did make me feel things, the one that would almost certainly fit me like a glove.

  [Arcane Wanderer].

  Yeah … I could have just stuck with this one from the start.

  [Class Evolution: Courtmage of Neutrality Lv. 50 -> Arcane Wanderer Lv. 51]

  [Skill gained: Magical Traditions]

  Ooh, it even gave me the first Skill of this new Class, I didn’t have to go out and earn an extra Level for it?

  Hell yes.

  Obviously, Fionn’s memory was the most comprehensive collection of magical knowledge in existence, but with this Skill, I could go fishing in literally all the ponds, so to speak.

  Also, how much magic was there to find out there? Something to think about once the cleanup was done, I supposed … and the fifth Challenge was swiftly approaching too.

  “Did you get anything good?” Charlemagne asked.

  I nodded.

  “And is there anything you would like to do with your new Skill?”

  “No,” I replied.

  “Then open us a portal to Indonesia, because I believe there is some cleanup to do.”

  ***

  As it turned out, “cleanup” was putting it mildly. However, it was still done fairly swiftly.

  Rain spells bound the ash and made it drop back down to the earth before it could spread, and with Charlemagne coordinating, disaster relief efforts were scarily effective.

  The area around Mount Tambora had been obliterated, but combined efforts had at least managed to turn it into a flat plain. In addition, everything damaged by the tsunami had been unfucked to at least the point where it was livable, though the imminent fifth Challenge had ensured that the amount of time that could be spent on helping was limited.

  One monster, not even a World Boss, had killed nearly a hundred thousand people just by falling over and dying. Yes, that was actually rather low, but the fight had been nowhere near any cities. If there had been, the casualties could have easily spiraled into the millions.

  And things were guaranteed to only get worse from here.